Chapter 15 Section fifteen

She lived in the shabby house of my aunt's house for half a year. As soon as the autumn harvest was over, my fourth sister built two new shabby houses on the Xinzhuang base assigned to her by the production team.By the end of the Gregorian calendar, the floor of the new house was not completely dry, so she thanked her fourth aunt, and happily moved into her new house with Jianfeng.Although the fourth aunt sincerely persuaded them to continue to live, and insisted on stuffing the rent money she gave her back into her pocket, the fourth sister still moved into her new building without hesitation.She was already in labor, and her swollen belly was very conspicuous. According to the doctor's calculation, the due date of delivery had arrived.There is a big taboo in Guanzhong villages. Children must be born on their own kangs. They must not be unconsciously ignorant and cause troubles in people's hearts!It was really a strange coincidence. On the first night after moving here, at dawn, the child fell into the grass.

Fourth sister was extremely tired, lying on the kang, not wanting to move.The smell of fresh mud in the house mingled with the smell of wood from the new rafters and purlins of the roof.When the child was born, the boy with yellow hair was lying beside him.There is also a house, and her blood seeps on the feet of this new civil structure building that is not completely dry.She finally has her own nest, a nest built by herself!How difficult! The old woman was working on the bellows in the small, hastily built stove in the yard. After a while, she brought her a bowl of boiled eggs as soft as bean curd.After a while, she brought her well-cooked millet rice soup, a plate of pickles splashed with cooked oil, and a few pieces of white flour steamed buns that were baked golden and crisp.She ate and chewed, and seeing her mother-in-law's silver-white hair exposed under the veil, her kind and pious demeanor, she burst into tears.Her dear biological mother was far away in the mountains of northern Shaanxi, and she didn't know that she had given birth to her a little grandson.According to the customs of the villages in the Guanzhong area, it is an unshirkable responsibility for the mother-in-law to serve the confinement mother-in-law, because the daughter-in-law gave birth to her grandson, extending the family's heirs forward for another generation.The fourth sister courteously asked her mother-in-law to have dinner with her, but the mother-in-law refused. She excused herself by saying that she had to cook for her husband later, and left in a hurry.The mother-in-law is busy enough, she has to run back and forth in the village lane between the old house and the new building with a pair of free feet, and cooks six meals a day, but she doesn't seem to be bored... The birth of a new life brings She and her rancor faded away.

"This little brat has such a bony nose!" The fourth sister was sitting on the kang and eating. The mother-in-law had already unwrapped her son's bag and put on a new diaper. Looking at her grandson's face, she admired the nose with a smile.Fourth Sister turned her head, and the boy squinted his eyes, his face was covered with fluffy yellow hair, and his nose couldn't be seen how sharp, it was even a bit ugly.It was the first time she saw the baby just out of the mother's womb, it was really not very good-looking, but the mother-in-law looked at it with a smile as if she couldn't get enough of it.

"Your father asked me to see if the baby's nose is tall," the mother-in-law said emotionally, and took the opportunity to skillfully convey her husband's greetings on the happy event.Before the moon was born, he could not enter the "confinement room" of his daughter-in-law as a man. The mother-in-law said, "Your father is a poor man. He said that he looked down on big things since he was young! People with concave noses are mostly poor people, and they don't have to be big." Promising. Only a boy with a high nose and a wide forehead can be a manly man! Well—this kid has a very broad forehead, too!"

"Mom! Why don't you just say that he can become the governor of the province in the future!" said the fourth sister.She was also emotional.Regardless of whether the child will become a dragon or a worm in the future, the sincere love of the old woman and father-in-law has already been fully expressed on the first morning when the child just fell into the weeds.She can't hate her mother-in-law or her father-in-law.She hugged her mother-in-law's neck and whispered affectionately, "Mom... Mom..." The two sisters-in-law also came with eggs, visiting politely. The second aunt came in the afternoon of the same day, breaking the custom, she was supposed to come three days later.She couldn't wait, so she brought millet, rice, red beans, eggs, brown sugar, and high-grade fine flour steamed buns, filled two bamboo cages, and carried them here with a pole.

Jianfeng frowned and looked at his son's face: "It's so ugly! It's yellow hair!" He said stupidly, "The newborn babies in the movies are white and fat..." He said again Laughing, he pressed close to her face and said, "Anyway, it's our seed!" Seeing the second aunt coming in, he stood up hastily, feeling overwhelmed with shame. The second aunt did not go home at night, and slept with the fourth sister, telling her how to breastfeed the child, change diapers, and never do any work or cooking during the confinement period, let alone use cold water, which will cause sequelae .In fact, her mother-in-law had already warned her about these things.The second aunt also whispered that Jianfeng was not allowed to come with her. To be on the safe side, let the mother-in-law sleep with her at night so that she can take care of the children...

When this little life came to this mud-brick hut, there had just been an earth-shattering earthquake on the land of China. The powerful shock wave of the collapse of the "Gang of Four" echoed on old and new walls.However, this broken cub with a boney nose couldn't accept the strong feelings in his young parents and his hard-working grandpa and grandma. The son opened his eyes, and the eyes were so big.The son will smile, grinning his beautiful lips, the yellow hair has long since faded, and his white face is so attractive that people can't help but kiss him.The bridge of the nose is raised, like a father and more like a grandfather.The son will turn over, fall to the bottom of the kang, and there is a bump on his forehead when he falls, the mother-in-law scolds her for being careless, the son will sit, stand up, and move around holding the adult's hand... Finally, he I can run on the dirt road in front of Xinzhuang Foundation.

For a whole year and a half, Fourth Sister held the baby in her arms, wiped his shit, nursed him, and prevented him from falling over.She couldn't travel far, and couldn't even earn work points.She takes care of the children.She cooks and cleans the yard, and has completely become a housewife who can't leave the door.She was in a hurry. The affairs of Lujiabao are all in chaos.Those cadres and commune members who were defeated during the "Four Cleanups" and the "Cultural Revolution", those "enemies" who were supplemented as landlords and rich peasants, ran up and down day and night, ran to the commune, ran to the county government, and went to Lujiabao. Not to mention running around, eagerly demanding to rehabilitate, screen, compensate for losses, and return the house.Those who have been punished are ashamed all day long.Those who have been punished naturally form a kind of alliance, echoing and supporting each other on all occasions, against the new tactics that those who have punished them continue to play.In order to expand the front, some people walked into Simeizi's new house several times, but they scolded those cadres who were still on the stage for being inhuman, even worse than animals, and made them miserable. For example, when Simeizi sold eggs, they Also fight her, confiscate the eggs, and now should demand public redress and return the loss.

The fourth sister expressed an enthusiastic response, but did not take actual action.She doesn't care.She thought that the fight and criticism had already passed, and redress would not give her any practical benefits.It doesn't make much sense to refund the confiscated ten or so yuan for eggs. She has already taken a look at a business, and she is especially concerned about the redress of the case. She learned from other people that the Nanzhang Village Brigade took out the grain reserves in stock and sold them for 20 cents per catty in order to compensate the economic losses for those who had been vindicated. catty.Many people look cheap, but have no cash.Fourth Sister couldn't hold back her heart.

She gave the baby to her mother-in-law, saying that she was going on a long trip, and the baby had been weaned, so she only needed to feed him some goat milk and steamed buns.She ran to the second aunt's house and asked to borrow 500 yuan. That night, she went to Nanzhang Village to buy a ton and a half of wheat, loaded it on the small tractor hired by Beizhang Village Brigade, and pulled it to Sangshu Town overnight. In the flour mill, the wheat becomes sacks of flour stacked high.At dawn, she stood on the axle behind the driver of the small four-wheel tractor, and kept telling the young man to drive carefully. She ran on the road in the outskirts of the city where vehicles and pedestrians were getting more and more dense. The goal was the West Railway Station, where many people lived. Railway workers and porters are mostly heavy manual laborers. They eat more food than rural people. The food rationed by the government often does not last until the end of the month. When she sold eggs in the past, she used to volunteer for several porters in the village. I secretly bought food.

The market has long since thawed and become active, and the grain is also on the market. The wheat has dropped to thirty-five cents a catty. Now she decides to sell the flour at the value of the wheat, because the wheat she bought is cheap.The key is to make a quick move. Dorado makes one more run, which is much more beneficial than deadlocking the price.Sure enough, as soon as the small tractors loaded with flour stopped in those small grass shed areas, someone asked questions, and the deal was made, and it was sold out within a meal. There was a canvas bag hanging around her neck, and all the money she received was stuffed into it, and there was no time to count it.When they were all sold out, she looked at the bulging canvas bag and dared not count it, let alone take it off her neck. She led the driver to a nearby restaurant, had a full meal, and returned to the car.She gave the driver a big union as a reward. As for the shipping fee, she will settle it with the Beizhang Village production team in one go. She said to him, "Hurry back to Nanzhang Village, buy another one and a half tons of wheat, and go to Sangshu Town overnight to process it. Come back early tomorrow morning, and I'll give you another ten yuan. How about it? You can't sleep for two days and two nights." Live? If I can’t hold it, I’ll find another tractor.” "No problem, sister-in-law!" The young man put the money in his pocket and called her sister-in-law respectfully, although he didn't know her before.He said, "When the wheat is being processed, I can just sleep, but you are spinning! As long as you hold on, I'm fine. Let's go! Go directly to Nanzhang Village?" "Nanzhang Village." Fourth Sister said. "Aren't you going home to have a look?" "Not coming back." For three days and three nights, the wheels kept turning and people kept moving.In the early morning of the fourth day, she sold out the flour and bought food for the little driver at a small restaurant as usual. She made an exception and gave him 20 yuan. Let's take you home!" She shook her head and said, "No. To Mulberry Town." He drove on the way to Mulberry Town without looking back.The fourth sister sat in the small trailer, looked at the little driver's head covered with yellow dust, and thought to herself, she gave him money, and he would drive wherever she told him.He drives the tractor of the production team in Beizhang Village, and the team counts his work points for him, and there is a one-dollar subsidy for the vehicle every day. The combined value of the work points does not exceed two dollars. She will give him ten dollars, and finally twenty dollars this time. Of course he can figure out which one is more and which one is less. He sells noodles for her and calls her sister-in-law.She leaned on the railing on the trailer and fell asleep in a daze. She was awakened by him, and Mulberry Town had arrived.She stored the drumheads after wheat processing in the warehouse of the flour processing factory, which weighed more than a thousand catties. She called the commune dairy farm and sold them to the dairy farm at the public price.Dairy farm manager Xi Youyou came here on a bicycle, completed the transfer procedures, handed over the money to Si Meizi, and went to pick up the goods.The fourth sister also stuffed the money into the canvas bag, jumped on the tractor, and said to the driver: "Now drive to your Beizhang Village, pay the fare to the team, and all the formalities are over." It was dark, and the fourth sister walked into Lujiabao Village with the bulging canvas bag hanging around her neck.There was another meeting on the radio, probably about rehabilitating someone.She turned around indifferently, and walked towards her small courtyard from a back alley.As soon as she stepped into the door, Jianfeng jumped off the kang, looked at her from head to toe like an unexpected visitor, and was so frightened that his eyes lost their minds: "My God! What are you doing? I didn’t go to the prison to look for you! Look, what have you become?” She is sitting on a wooden bench.What the hell did it look like?She took a look in the small round mirror from the cabinet, and she couldn't recognize herself.Her hair seemed to be brushed through flour and loess, yellow and white, and the dirt on both sides of the bridge of the nose filled up the hollows.The lips were dry with a layer of dry black skin flakes, and the eyes were like blood-filled fireballs.For three nights and four days, she didn't sleep or wash her face, and was involved in a kind of crazy excitement until the wheat reserve in Nanzhang Village was processed. Jianfeng had already brought a basin of water and put it on the floor for her to wash. She washed her face hastily, took off the schoolbag around her neck, threw it to him, and said, "You count." She fell onto the kang . Jianfeng unpacked his schoolbag, ran to the edge of the kang in fright, pulled her up abruptly, and put his arms around her shoulders: "Are you robbing someone?" Fourth Sister smiled faintly, pushed his hand away, and lay down . After Jianfeng counted the money, coded the big and small tickets, and locked them in the box.Take off the shoes and socks of the fourth sister, help her legs and feet hanging on the edge of the kang, help her take off the cotton coat and cotton trousers, and then cover her tightly with the quilt.He took off his clothes, fell asleep next to her, held her in his arms, patted her on the back lightly and said, "My...you! You... are really... King Chuang!" The fourth sister slept soundly! Jianfeng suddenly thought of his father.Mom and Dad ran over three times a day to ask her for definite news, and they are still worried!He got up, dressed, locked the door, hurried back to the old house, and whispered to the two old people that she had returned intact.From the flour that fell from her head and body, she had indeed done the business.When Jianfeng was asking about the whereabouts of his daughter-in-law, some people said that they saw her sitting on a tractor with flour on the road to Xi'an, and everyone in Nanzhang Village knew about the handling of grain reserves. things together.My father and mother were so frightened that they repeatedly told me, "Just earn a few dollars. Don't be too hard-hearted! In this chaotic world, don't look at the policy being more lenient. Maybe someday we will return to the carbine!" Mom said: "Hurry up and take the baby back and sleep with his mother. The baby hasn't seen her mother for three days and three nights, and she just asked for his mother!" Jianfeng smiled and said: "Forget it! She has already fallen asleep. She was too tired, and fell asleep without taking off her shoes when she got home. Let her have a good night's rest, and don't let this piece of shit make trouble..." The corner of the mother's mouth twitched, and she said with a self-evident wink, you will feel sorry for your daughter-in-law...